“We spent our last three hours together with her laying on my chest just like we used to do when it was too cold or rainy in the tent.”

For those of us who had spent years following the duo’s epic adventures on social media – or had the pleasure, as I did, of joining them on the final leg of their journey, the news was gut-wrenching.

We’d known things were dire about a week earlier, when a visibly devastated Tom posted an Instagram reel telling his followers about Sav’s sudden decline as she grappled with kidney problems, Lyme disease and other health issues.

But he didn’t want to give up hope, he said, and neither did we. So after a brief crowdfunding campaign he embarked on an effort to save her life with transfusions, ultrasounds, antibiotics and other treatments. In the end, it was futile.

I’ve often wondered about the symbiotic relationship between dogs and humans: the inseparable bond that makes it so hard, once you’ve had a good dog, to live without them.

Perhaps this explains the outpouring of support that Tom has received since losing his best mate. Grief, after all, is a universal thing, that is said to come in stages. The last stage, they say, is acceptance, which often lies in acknowledging how little we can control.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Tom decided to walk around the globe before his 26th birthday, after two of his childhood friends died. It made him realise life is fleeting, he said, and that every day should be lived as though it’s your greatest adventure.

It was a story that resonated with so many others around the world at a time when a pandemic had shut down our borders, separated families and upended life as we’d known it.

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I’d had the pleasure of meeting Sav in May 2022, when Tom invited the public to join them on the final leg of their journey – walking across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia to their homecoming party 2½ hours away in Camden, New Jersey.

I knew our readers could do with a feel-good follow-up to the story I’d written earlier about their worldwide adventure, but I was also months out of a heartbreaking divorce and missing my own best mates – two cavoodles named Prince and George Michael – whom I reluctantly agreed to leave in Australia in the good care of my ex while I met the relentless demands of jet-setting across North America as a foreign correspondent.

On learning of Sav’s death this week, I told Tom she was a beautiful dog, who had brought so much joy to so many people – including me.

“She was – and we were lucky,” he replied, his voice cracking. “We got to spend every minute of every day together. To see the world, and smell the world, to go for walks.

“I struggle because part of me feels like she was robbed of her retirement. But I take solace in all the support I’ve had – and the fact that she lived an incredible life.”

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